Each fall during Library Card Sign-up Month, the American Library Association and libraries across the country remind parents that a library card is the most important school supply of all.
It is a little known fact that in most parts of Illinois, residents and property owners in incorporated areas don’t pay for a library card up front, but they pay a tax, as part of their local property tax, for library use.
However, taxes paid by people who live outside of a library taxing area (usually rural residents) do not cover library services. Therefore, these “non-residents” are asked to pay a fee that is based on the average tax when they apply for a family library membership.
For some families, this fee (anywhere from $25 to more than $50 in this part of Illinois) may be unaffordable. According to a recent survey, about 250 area non-residents each year decide that they cannot afford the fee to use their local library.
But help is available.